Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Presiding Bishop: Embrace the change - have no fear, be irritable and embarrassing! It's fun!

From here:
“Decisions made here sometimes irritate other people,” said Jefferts Schori. “We also embarrass other parts of the Communion when we talk about sexuality.”

The Episcopal Church in America has about 2.3 million members in the United States and is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Diocese of Northern California has 70 congregations with 14,000 members, according to the diocesan Web site.

Jefferts Schori, 55, spoke as Northern Californian Episcopalians ended their convention. She spoke in a relaxed but friendly style from prepared notes.

During her sermon, the bishop talked about the importance of change, a theme she carried into a question-and- answer forum with churchgoers later.

Worshippers, who came from throughout the Sacramento area, asked about same-sex liturgies, health care reform, growth in the church, and the need to heal racial divisions.

Ruth Lindgren asked about the recent Vatican announcement inviting Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church. Many leaned forward in their pews to hear the bishop’s response.

Jefferts Schori smiled and nodded and said the policy was not new. A similar one had been in effect for 30 years, she said. Then she quoted another bishop.

“The road between Canterbury and Rome is well- traveled,” said Jefferts Schori.
Read it all here.

10 comments:

TLF+ said...

Well, when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, all the pigeons gonna run to him.

Allen said...

...and the road up to the front doors of your local Episcopal Church are less traveled more and more. Less than 1/2 of Pisckies bother to show up anymore.

Leadership? We don't need no stinkin' leadership!

Daniel Weir said...

I suspect that the % of members who actually worship regularly has never been much more the 50%.

Rolin said...

Did she pick up that costume from the auction at the old Wizard of Oz movie set?

eqb said...

Looks like Sewanee is under her wicked spell

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=11584

Anonymous said...

I would recommend taking the road less traveled - cross the Bosporus!

Steve

Daniel Weir said...

One should note that the University of the South belongs to a province of TEC and the decision to remove trustees who were no longer Episcopalians was proper. If I were to become a citizen of another state, I would not expect to be able to vote in the state that I left.

Just Me said...

I love the title of this thread; it made me chuckle. =)

Undergroundpewster said...

The 2.3 million US members is wrong. In 2008 the number was closer to 2 million. That 2 million barrier may be broken in the next few years at this rate.

JaneC Duquette said...

A quick look at the published charts http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_1121200931352PM.pdf will show that the average Sunday attendance for the DIOCESE of Northern California is around 6,000. There are individual Roman Catholic parishes that have that many people. This diocese was close to 20,000 people and average Sunday attendance of 8,000 in 2000. The money figures are about the same. It looks like the road is traveled more out of the Episcopal church than into it.